RIP Bob Kholos, Tom Bradley intimate and friend of Off-Ramp

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Here's Tom Bradley at a news conference in 1969, when the future mayor was a city councilman. On the far right, see the man in the rumpled suit and the goofy smile? That's Bob Kholos, who was Bradley's first press secretary as mayor, and media director during Bradley's campaign. Bob died last Tuesday (October 12) of cancer; he was 67.

I count Bob as a friend. He was one of Off-Ramp's first important guests, a witness to the history of Los Angeles, who recounted for us in 2006 Bradley's campaigns for mayor, the racial tenor of the times, and the terror of the SLA shootout.

(Bob Kholos in 2006, outside LA City Hall. Credit: John Rabe)

I've posted those segments on this week's Off-Ramp page. Give them a listen. Bob takes us back to a time that was at once more troubled and more optimistic. Almost until his death, he ran a fascinating and important blog, SaigonBob, a nod to his Vietnam War days.